I have a couple Passonflowers growing near the pillars on my porch. What is the best (and easiest, hopefully - I am pregnant and due this Friday!) method for allowing the twining vines to grow up the pillars? They are doing very well this year and I want to get them situated before the baby is born, as well as in anticipation of guests. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

Good luck. I don't think they would be too tough to DIY, provided you are handy. I had no idea how they would be built until I saw them performing the work, so hopefully the pictures will be helpful. When I posted these pictures, they hadn't put the top stone trim piece on the top of the pillar yet, so here is one last picture taken a little closer in of the finished product (pre-paint, of course). I purchased mission style house numbers that we are going to hang vertically down the rightmost column to complete the project.

Hi dmissy, Its hard to tell depth from the pic, would the lattice stick way out? The problem seems to me to be the siding dropping down between more than the concrete porch frame. The siding looks odd whereas if the old porch foundation went straight across and the siding straight above it, the appearance would look ok. I guess the chances of finding a match to the concrete in facing material is unlikely but I think that is what I would try to do - cut out the siding and install something that resembles the old porch, then paint it all slightly darker than the siding, with cream and tan and grey to give it a stone look. The quick fix would be to paint it slightly darker as I said but just a paint the siding that is between the same way and also repair the base below the siding. OR you could stucco over the cement porch, still would have to take off the siding and then add something for a lip just below the siding. I don't know what is under the siding but if its something that can be stucco'd on do that. My dh insulated our foundation with foam board (blue board its called even though the one we bought was pink), and thens stucco'd the part that is above the ground and it looks great! If you went the stucco route the goal would be to hide the concrete blocks and make a smoother surface. You could put a piece of blue board where the siding used to be and stucco on that. Anyway, just alternative thoughts. Be sure to post what you finally do about it! and good luck. kathy

An actual handsaw wil do the job better than anything else with a shorter blade. A Nobex miter saw might be large enough. otherwise mark all the way around and start sawing.